Monday, March 18, 2024

St Giles in the Fields - Passion Sunday

 The online service was at St Giles in the Fields, London and the celebrant used the Book of Common Prayer. It was a wonderful service and the priest gave a short history of the Church which began as a chapel of a 12th-century monastery and leper hospital. I believe we walked by this Church on our tour through London and Westminster. It is such a good idea to start at Westminster Bridge and walk the entire distance to the Tower of London going up the streets when it suits and really seeing both cities. In total it is about 27,000 steps and so worth the trip. 

It was a Book of Common Prayer service for Passion Sunday and the music was glorious. There wasn't actually a service ongoing but it was presented solely for the viewing audience which is nice as well as attending an actual service. 

The Lenten Reading today was titled "Language and Story" and it brought home to me once again my times with my grandfather when he was sharing with me his story and the story of his Blake family from Upper Clatford, Hampshire, England. He wanted his grandchildren to know their Blake family that had lived "forever" in the Andover, Hampshire area of England. I was too young to remember it all perfectly but as the years pass I get glimpses once again of his stories as I read the histories and search the documents. That is what grandparents do; that is their place in the family to tell their grandchildren the stories of their family but I am writing it all down as I learned with my own children you need to let them slowly find their path and not flood them with too much all at once. The gifts of modern life for sure - the computer. 

I watched a movie on Netflix later in the afternoon,  Paul, Apostle of Christ. Waiting for the 27th of March when a movie about Moses will be available on Netflix. I liked the person who played the part of  Paul. St Peter was the cornerstone of the Church of Jesus Christ but St Paul was definitely its memory producing so many written texts that we still read and love today.

A second quiet day to rest my eyes; they have been doing a lot of work and two days off was great. Today is major cleaning day so not likely will I do any work on Pencombe so tomorrow will be a Pencombe day. Then Wednesday I get back to looking at the Blake data that I was looking at last Friday. I find it interesting that both the Blake Pedigree Chart and the Blake Family Chart do have a Richard Blake at the top or near the top of the Chart. It is not that common a name in the Blake family although does occur in various generations. I am thinking that when the first chart was produced (Pedigree Chart) that Richard le Blak would have long ago been forgotten given that he received his patent roll to set up a market in England in 1274 and the chart was created in 1690 with additions up into the 1700s. Although these additions were minimal. But there he appears on both charts (if it is the Richard le Blak from Rouen Normandy). As mentioned when we visited Rouen Cathedral in Norman in 2014 I was most excited to find the effigy for Richard le Blak in the Cathedral (it was undergoing some reconstruction at that time) but in general everything seemed to be in place; just exterior work. One thing I did learn when we were in France was that all the Churches in France belong to the government and they maintain them (perhaps it is just old Churches though; the tour director wasn't entirely clear on that point). They are rented to congreations for one euro a year apparently although again I never clarified that. Their churches are very well kept up and we were most lucky to have toured Notre Dame in Paris at that time. We actually took a carriage ride behind a bicycle back to the hotel from Notre Dame and it was amazing riding along the streets with the cars but at a pace where you could really appreciate the beautiful architecture in downtown Paris (we stayed at St James).  This is an amazing hotel. The layout of the main floor is quite spectacular. 

Minus one degree celsius today and it is cloudy. We can have snow well into April here but at the moment we are looking at a pretty bleak picture but I did notice the ground isn't quite as dry as I thought. That at least is hopeful. It does look like winter just no snow!

I do find it amusing that dictators have to hold these elections where they threaten people if they do not do what they want and then claim the biggest electoral victory ever. Who do they think they are kidding|? Themselves I guess. How sad for the Russian people to have to have such ignorant leaders; no interest in the people just themselves getting wealthy. At least they are fighting back some of the people anyway they want the Russia that Alexei Navalny wanted for them. As for the Nazi despot Putin, like Stalin making his pact to divide up Poland with Hitler, wants more Europe but especially Ukraine. Who does he think he is kidding - do the Chinese buy into nuclear war, one wonders? After all the world could not go through a nuclear war and come out in any condition that supports human life or animal/plant life for that matter. But we are a God-loving God-fearing people and will support Ukraine.

Teatime and Latin; the morning moves forward.  Great news, when I went to make my tea I discovered that we have a very light dusting of snow on the ground and it is continuing to snow ever so lightly!


No comments:

Post a Comment